Jul 21, 2010

Jul 21, 2010
#17 - On the Might of Princes - Where You Are....

On the Might of Princes - Where You Are and Where You Want To Be

Released by Traffic Violation Records in 2002

This album took me a few years to really fall for. I think in 2002 I was a pretty jaded and pissed dude. I didn't like who I was. And I didn't like who everyone else was becoming. I was totally stuck. When this album came out, and the album that came out shortly before this one, Thursday - Full Collapse, I was like, "Seriously? This is what we're doing now?" Do I blame myself for thinking that closed minded shit? Nah, not really. I was a product of my surroundings. And all I surrounded myself with was Exit/Wreck-age. There was a stretch of about 5 or 6 years where I had the same 12 disks in my car cd changer. They never moved. And 1-3 were Silent Majority. Once I realized that the 90s were over, say around 2004 haha, I really started to love a bunch of albums I missed. Where You Are, and Where You Want To Be is definitely on that list with Thursday - Full Collapse. I'm not saying it's on the same level as FC. Don't get me wrong here, Full Collapse is basically and all time great album. It's probably the greatest album of its genre. But I reacted the same way to it. I misunderstood it in the same way. This whole screamo genre got my nuts all twisted up. If only someone would have picked a better name! Now a days I can like bands like I Robot, or Saetia. I can listen to them and enjoy them. I've learned to understand them better. But this album is different. This is more toward the Full Collapse side of Emo/Screamo or whatever you want to call it. That's the side I've really learned to love and appreciate.

Lets talk about this album's spot on the list. I think this definitely could have been higher on someone else's LI list. Someone that started to go to shows in say 2000 maybe. Like I said, it hit me at a weird time. And I think this definitely gets in my Top 10 of the last 10 years. Probably top 5. Something else that's interesting to think about...what would have happened if they took either the 2 hardest songs out or the two slowest songs out, rearranged the remaining songs, and then put this LP out as an 8 song full length instead of a 10? I believe this change would've created a more fluent of an album. It seems like right now you get sort of derailed when you go from Old Wives Tale to An Allusion of Italy. It's more noticeable on CD for sure. On vinyl, after you listen to the charged up A side, it's easier to take a step back before you flip to B and listen to An Allusion of Italy. With a cd though there's no flip. You just go right from rocking the fuck out, to banjos for days.

I'm not speaking for anyone when I say this but you got to wonder if the shit they got for going to Revelation affected their writing. Sirens was a decent album, but it's nothing like this one. Did they try too hard? Did they want to prove something? People were cursing their future left and right when they went to Rev. Like Revs some giant label or something. It's a total joke. In my world, when you went to Revelation Records, you were a fucking hero. You DIDN'T sellout. You stayed true. These people out there think going to Rev was like going to TVT or some shit. Now that would have been selling out. TVT is a graveyard for goatees and earrings.